JUDGE SELECTION
Our judges are selected from the national and international brewing industry and include brewers, sensory experts, suppliers, consultants, and writers.
Judges are selected based on their experience, sensory abilities, industry and peer recognition, knowledge of beer styles and the brewing process.
Indies judges perform several important roles. They are required to assess entries against a stringent set of criteria and provide concise accurate feedback describing both positive attributes as well as faults noted during the competition.
Judges are selected by the Head Judge and Indies Advisory Committee via an expression of interest process.
JUDGING PROCESS
Each entry is assessed at a table of no less than four judges including one Associate Judge.
This process is led by an experienced Table Captain who is tasked to ensure the integrity of the competition, facilitate table discussion, to reach consensus on medals given and to ensure that the process runs smoothly.
Judges never evaluate their own product or products in which they may have had an interest.
Judging is blind with no brand knowledge of any kind provided and each beer is judged individually on its sensory merits with adherence to the 2024 Indies Awards Style Guidelines.
Once beers have been judged, each is discussed as a group and determined to receive gold, silver, bronze or no medal via a scoring criterion provided. Comments are collected for each beer and provided as feedback to the entrant after the awards are announced.
Based on feedback we have done a lot of work on improving our feedback process as we realise this is a very important part of the competition for an entrant.